


apricity

by tostitos



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Teachers, Christmas Fluff, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Pining, School Dances, Secret Admirer, also not exactly christmas fluff, i’m aware it’s may, mentions of other Kpop idols, mentions of other nct members - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-14
Updated: 2019-05-14
Packaged: 2020-03-05 10:54:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,888
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18827215
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tostitos/pseuds/tostitos
Summary: Little notes done in poor handwriting and spontaneous gifts left on his desk with no name are the last things Dongyoung needs right now.Alternatively: How the Grinch's heart was stolen before Christmas





	apricity

**Author's Note:**

> i started writing this 2 years ago, during the actual holiday season, and was too lazy to finish it and now here i am :D
> 
> currently unedited

Dongyoung wasn't big on holidays. At best, they were capitalist money grabs and reasons for people to delude themselves into thinking they were owed expensive gifts and Dongyoung's even more precious time. And Christmas was the worst.

Christmas was that ex who always liked you more than you liked them and who still shows up at your favorite coffee shop when they know you'll be there and sits at the empty seat at your painfully small table and says 'fancy meeting you here' as if you're not there at the same time once a week. It was a burden you were supposed to appreciate lest you look like an over dramatic asshole for splashing your scalding salted caramel latte into it's face.

Most people knew Dongyoung was less than enthused about the Christmas season, which is why he's taken aback by the white teddy bear sitting on his desk when he gets back from the copier, a soft cloud of fluff in a santa hat amongst textbooks and stacks of tests to be returned.

A few girls are clumped around his desk in the front of the class and chatting about a new horror movie coming out.

"Excuse me." Dongyoung flags their attention as he places the study guides for Algebra II on a clear spot on his desk and picks up the bear. "Did any of you see who put this here?"

Upon lifting the bear, he notices a small, square red envelope hidden under it.

Written in script that looks like it was done by a three year old with its foot, is his name.

At least the heart next to it is well done.

"We thought you had a change of heart, Mr. Scrooge." Yooa grins at her joke as she and her friends waddle over to get a look at the bear.

Dongyoung rolls his eyes with a small, amused smile of his own. "Shut up. I have to talk to Ms. Bae about letting you read A Christmas Carol." He sets the bear on his desk and lets the girls crowd around to coo over how cute it is.

"I can't believe  _Mr. Kim_  has a secret admirer." Hyojung pouts at the bear, sounding disappointed in her own teenage love life.

Even as a soft blush crawls over the balls of his cheeks, Dongyoung clicks his tongue and crosses his arms over his chest, mildly affronted. "Am I not allowed to have an admirer?"

He's pretty sure it's not an admirer, or that's what he tries to tell himself; the obvious attempt at hiding identity with terrible handwriting makes it kind of hard to do so, though.

Hyojung wipes the pout off her face and smiles sheepishly. "No offense, Mr. Kim. You might be cute but you teach math and wear bow ties. "

"What's wrong with bow ties?" Dongyoung looks down with a frown and catches sight of his classic, black bow tie nestled between the flaps of his sweet wine red button down in the lower peripherals of his gaze.

It's not like he wears argyle sweater vests with a fanny pack full of protractors and compasses hanging at his waist. He's very well put together. 

Hyojung never explains why his ties are so hideous because Seunghee descends into intelligibility with a whispered series of, "oh my god, oh my god, oh my god."

"What if it's Mr. Nakamoto?"

" _What_."

Dongyoung's confused (and mildly horrified) squawk is drowned out by the girls' giggling and excited agreement.

"Oh my god. I would scream."

"Mr. Nakamoto is soooo hot."

"Did you see them yesterday after classes ended?"

"When they were talking and Mr. Kim shoved him and started to walk away but Mr. Nakamoto just pulled him back and had his arm around his waist? Yes, it was so cute."

"Have you forgotten that I'm  _right here_?" Dongyoung lifts his hand as he interrupts them, uncomfortable smile plastered on his face.

Seunghee laughs. "Sorry, Mr. Kim."

He knows the students get a kick out of his friendship with one of the science teachers, Yuta Nakamoto, but the revelation that they've been pairing them together is new and very  _very_  uncomfortable.

He doesn't have time to dwell on this information because the rest of the class has finished filing in after lunch and one quick glance at his watch tells him the bell is going to ring soon for his fifth period statistics class.

Shooing the girls away from his desk, Dongyoung pushes the bear, the unopened note, and weird images of his coworker and friend sneaking into his classroom to leave them off to the side for later.

 

_How are you, Mr. Kim?_

_It's getting colder these days so if you ever feel too chilly, please hug me and warm up._

_-Your Teddy Bear <3_

 

Jisung glances up as Dongyoung pokes his head into a classroom on the other side of the third floor twenty minutes after school lets out and all of the children who don’t have a reason to stay have gone home. The kid is the only occupant of the room, with two sheets of paper in front of him and a grey cloud above his head.

"Sorry to interrupt but do you know where Mr. Nakamoto went?" Dongyoung asks, looking around the classroom as if the man who obviously isn’t there is going to magically rise from one of the many test tubes in the room in a cloud of smoke like a genie from a bottle.

Furiously tapping the end of his pencil on the desk he's seated at, Jisung shrugs. "He just said he'd be back in a few minutes."

Dongyoung sighs and nods. "Okay. Thanks. Good luck.”

“Thanks,” Jisung mumbles back with the attitude of someone who is sure he’s speeding down the track to failure.

Leaving the kid to his test, Dongyoung travels through the halls of the high school until he reaches the teacher’s lounge tucked in a small room inside the main office. He has quizzes to grade for his two statistics classes and an always growing stack of homework to check, and while he isn’t exhausted, he can feel a little fatigue clinging to his eyelashes like small weights.

Things typically just pop up in the small kitchen without notice or note of who brought it, and Dongyoung doesn’t know who to blame for the horrible coffee they have no choice to drink in order to get rid of it. He’s frowning at the dark roast sitting warm in the pot, bugs bunny mug clutched in both of his hands, when Johnny, another English teacher, walks in with his glasses in one hand as he rubs at his temples with the other.

“Tired?” Dongyoung asks, finally reaching out to take the coffee pot.

Johnny looks over his hand at Dongyoung and gives a small shake of his head. “Headache,” he says. “Had one all morning.” He replaces his glasses on his face.

Dongyoung glances up at him as he fills his mug with shit water. “I have some painkillers upstairs if you need a couple.”

Johnny opens the cabinet above the sink and takes out his own mug, a black cup with blue water drops and ‘tears of my students’ written in bright white letters. “No, that’s alright. Joohyun gave me some after lunch. I just haven’t had the chance to take them yet.” He moves to the small shelving unit to fetch a tea bag, earl grey.

They do a strange dance after Dongyoung puts down the coffee pot, spinning around each other and switching places so Johnny can get to the electric water dispenser and Dongyoung to the refrigerator where he takes out the creamer. Johnny finishes preparing his tea first, and Dongyoung offers him wishes to feel better before he leaves the teacher’s lounge.

Once he finishes stirring in the creamer and two sticks of sugar, and once a careful sip of his coffee proves it tastes less like shit and more like the dirt on the bottom of a shoe, Dongyoung leaves the teacher’s lounge and starts the hike back up to the third floor.

When he passes the science hallway, he considers swinging past Yuta’s classroom again but decides against doing so. He doesn’t want to distract Jisung from his assignment, even though it looked like he had no idea what was written on the test and probably won’t do better or worse with a distraction. So he walks the length across the third floor to the cluster of math classrooms, sipping on his dirt water while it’s still hot because it’ll go back to tasting like shit if he waits too long.

His classroom is void of loitering students or kids with questions to ask him and he hums, satisfied, as he walks over to his desk. His eyes first land on the little bear and he stares at it as if doing so would cause the plush to come to life and answer all of the questions swimming around in his head. But it does nothing but sit there and the questions continue to grow and Dongyoung doesn’t know what to think.

Setting down his mug on his desk, Dongyoung pulls out his chair and falls into with all the grace of a young deer. He crosses one leg over the other, leans forward onto his elbows, and takes the bear in hand.

Its fur is soft when he drags his thumbs over its face and the white ball at the end of the floppy santa hat is made of the same fluff. Wrapped around its neck is a little red, knit scarf and its mouth is stitched into the slightest of smiles. He can’t deny that the bear is cute, that it’d make a sweet gift with a box of dark chocolate and cherries and a marathon of feel good movies at home on the couch.

Looking at it makes the horrible coffee on Dongyoung’s tongue taste like peppermint candy canes.

He’s not sure which of the two is worse.

 

“Heard you were looking for me.”

Dongyoung looks up from the quiz he’s grading and over at Yuta as he strides over to his desk, hands tucked cooly into the front pockets of his slacks. The first two buttons of his crisp, white shirt are undone and Dongyoung frowns in disapproval.

“One more button and I’d be able to see your chest,” he chides, putting down his pen and and leaning back in his chair. It groans under his weight.

Yuta pushes a stack of already graded quizzes off to the side with a light hand and perches on the side of the desk. “Yeah, that’s why I only did two.”

Dongyoung rolls his eyes but before he can open his mouth, Yuta is reaching over to tug at one end of his tie. The fabric gives, the knot sliding undone, and Yuta blinks at it in clear surprise.

“Oh, it’s not a clip on,” he says plainly, staring at the way the tie hangs loose around Dongyoung’s neck.

Closing his eyes, Dongyoung lets out a sigh of exasperation and reaches up to tug his tie off all the way. “No, it’s not.”

Yuta holds out a hand and Dongyoung looks at it without much interest. “Give me the tie,” the science teacher says, wiggling his fingers.

Dongyoung does as requested, folding the tie in half and placing it Yuta’s hand. He crosses his arms over his chest as he watches Yuta leave the tie in his lap so he can fix the two buttons of his shirt. He knows for a fact that Yuta doesn’t know how to tie a bow tie, and he offers no help as his friend loops the fabric around his neck and tries to make something of it.

“So, what did you want me for?” Yuta asks as he folds the tie this way and that.

Dongyoung picks up the bear and holds it in his hands. “What is this?”

Yuta looks up from the tangled mess he’s making. “A teddy bear?” He gives up on the tie and puts a hand on the table to hold his weight. He takes the bear from Dongyoung with his other hand. “Have you finally gotten over your weird disdain for Christmas?”

Frowning at the bear as Yuta pokes at its nose, Dongyoung glances at the red envelope peeking out from beneath the Algebra 2 textbook. Maybe he shouldn’t show that to Yuta. Just because he knows the science teacher has a penchant for teasing, just as immature as his students, and he’d rather not be on the receiving end of relentless jokes. “It’s not disdain. I just don’t care for it,” he says. “And no. It was left on my desk after lunch.”

Yuta looks up, eyebrows raised in curiosity. “No note?”

Dongyoung glances back over at the red envelope again. “Nope.”

“Hm,” Yuta glances down at the bear and turns it in his hands as if looking for something, “that’s weird.”

“Some of my algebra girls are convinced it’s like a secret admirer kind of thing.”

Yuta snorts. “Not when you wear shit like this.” He points at the bow tie lying in knots against his collar.

Dongyoung rolls his eyes and asks for the bear back. He sits it on the far edge of his desk, like an out of sight, out of mind sort of thing.

“Is that why you were looking for me?”

“I thought it was from you.”

Raising an eyebrow, Yuta looks at Dongyoung with something that looks a little too close to a smirk for comfort. “You thought it was from me,” he repeats, obviously still thinking of the mention of secret admirers.

Scowling, Dongyoung punches Yuta in the leg. “As in, I thought it was a prank,” he explains. “You leaving me dumb shit like this because you know I don’t like this season.”

Because not even Seunghee and the girls’ absolute excitement over the possibility of it being Yuta who left the gift as something genuine would convince Dongyoung that his friend would do such a thing. Yuta isn’t the cheesy romantic type, not the kind of man to fill a bathtub with rose petals and secretly cook a three-course, candlelit dinner; he’d more likely order in Chinese and pair it with wine and put on a movie that he talks through the entire time. And that’s not even taking into account the most important detail: that it’s ridiculous to think Yuta would be interested in him.

They’ve worked together at Neo Technological High School for the past four years and with Yuta as one of his closer friends amongst the other teachers, Dongyoung is sure he would have noticed any underlying feelings.

Yuta laughs, a bright, obnoxious sound that makes Dongyoung frown more often than it makes him smile. “If I was going to prank you, you’d know it. Most of the satisfaction comes from you knowing.”

Dongyoung thinks back to Halloween when Yuta used his free period to creep outside Dongyoung’s advanced statistics class and terrorize his students with a remote control spider. Thankfully, there were no complaints from parents afterward.

Yuta must be thinking about it too, because he continues: “The spider was so good. I’ve never seen you jump so high.” He sighs happily. “I watch the video whenever I’m sad.”

Dongyoung makes a mental note to steal his phone. He holds out his hand. “Alright, it wasn’t you. Give me back my tie and get out of my classroom.”

Long uninterested in the accessory, Yuta begins to work at the jumble around his neck without complaint. “Rude.”

“I got the information I wanted out of you and now you’re getting on my nerves.”

Yuta simply makes a sound in the back of his throat as he digs his fingers into another knot. “Let’s go out for drinks sometime. It’s been a while,” he says once he’s unraveled the tie and slipped it into Dongyoung’s waiting palm.

Humming, Dongyoung nudges his bag from under his desk and drops his tie into the opening he never bothered to close. “I’m good for Friday after work. Would rather not go out of my way to see you on Saturday if I don’t have to.”

Yuta slips off the desk with a light chuckle. “So, I’ll see you on Saturday.” On his way to the door, he undoes the first two buttons of his shirt.

“I’m choosing the bar,” Dongyoung says after him.

“And you can pay the first round too.” Yuta looks back over his shoulder with that smile full of undeniable charm and slips out of the classroom.

 

A few days later, Dongyoung walks into his classroom a little after six thirty in the morning with a big, black scarf looped around his neck and his hair falling into his eyes. He slaps a hand over the light switch, does the same for the thermostat, and then moves to his desk. He bounces on his toes as he removes his bag from his back, swinging around to plant it on his desk. Before he puts it down, he notices a white, square box wrapped in a thin red ribbon sitting there.

Frowning, Dongyoung slides his chair from under his desk and drops his bag into the seat. His eyes travel to the bear he’s left on the edge of his desk, uncomfortable with the thought of taking it home when he still doesn’t know where it came from, before they return to the box.

“This is ridiculous,” he murmurs to himself when he unravels the ribbon and opens the box to round chocolates and another small, red envelope.

After the bear, he didn’t know what to think. He doesn’t want to think his students’ outlandish idea of a secret admirer is true, but he also can’t imagine any other scenario where this makes sense. As far as he knows, the staff aren’t doing Secret Santa this year, and, even if they were and he’d just forgotten that he signed up for it, the romanticism of the gifts can’t be ignored. What else is he supposed to make of stuffed animals, chocolates, and unsigned notes?

Despite the confusion swirling sickly in his stomach, Dongyoung picks up one of the chocolate balls and pops it into his mouth. It’s dark, with a pleasant bitter bite to it, and he hums with surprise when he tastes cherry filling.

“At least they know how to pick out good chocolate,” he says as he takes another piece. He takes out the note as well and replaces the lid of the box before taking the card from the envelope.

_Hi, Mr. Kim_

_A part of me wants to tell you these chocolates remind me of you, just the slightest bit bitter but even more so sweet, but that’s cheesy even for me._

_Enjoy._

_\- Your Teddy Bear_

Dongyoung has never been the hopeless romantic type and yet, there’s sugar on his tongue and in his veins and maybe his heart skips a beat or three because of the rush.

“Just the slightest bit bitter,” he re-reads aloud. He feels like he should be offended, but there’s something flattering about the honesty...something genuine.

He smiles, and then he frowns.

His heart may skip but his stomach rolls like rushing water.

If this is really what he hopes it’s not, what is he supposed to do about it?

 

“You’re stingy, Mr. Kim. Share with us!”

Dongyoung closes the open drawer of his desk, hiding his chocolates from his trigonometry students, and gives Donghyuck a look that makes him sit back down and pick up his pencil. “I don’t like you lot enough to give you  _my_  chocolate, and even if I did, there isn’t enough for the whole class,” he says. He taps his finger on the spacebar of his laptop and the powerpoint on the whiteboard moves to the next slide.

“You’re a math teacher, Mr. Kim. You know how to divide,” yells Yukhei from the back of the classroom.

“I know the probability of me being struck by lightning at this very moment is higher than your grade point average, too, but that doesn’t mean I’m sharing my chocolates,” Dongyoung says smoothly.

The class full of mostly juniors erupts into hysterics and Dongyoung lets them have their moment, twirling his laser pointer between his fingers.

“That’s messed up, Mr. Kim.” Yukhei pouts, all huge wrestling body and big googly eyes.

Dongyoung shrugs and begins to explain how to solve the problem on the board. The class settles down then, forgetting about the chocolates and focusing on the lesson.

Dongyoung doesn’t forget them, though, not with the bear on the edge of his desk and not with the two red envelopes sitting openly on the desk that gets clearer with each stack of papers he returns to the students. They’ve been on the back of mind since this morning and all throughout his classes.

For a moment, he had entertained the thought of the bear being from a student, in some weird dare or admiration crush that he could have brushed off easily and without stress, but someone could only leave the chocolates before he arrived at school and no kid is getting into the building before seven o’clock. Now, he knows there’s a teacher out there writing love notes with their feet and buying nice chocolates for him.

He doesn’t claim to know the sexualities of all of the staff — he, himself, never blatantly came out to most of his coworkers even though a good deal of them have an idea— but to his knowledge the only men interested in other men are Taeyong Lee and the dickhead biology teacher he calls a friend.

Having Taeyong be the sender of everything would most definitely be a surprise. Dongyoung doesn’t very often talk to the art teacher and when they do, it’s mostly unimportant small talk to pass the time until they part ways. There isn’t much of a foundation for affection to form and he’s reluctant to believe Taeyong would do something like this based off attraction only.

Which leaves Dongyoung with no leads as to who could be his so-called ‘Teddy Bear’.

“You have twenty-five minutes to do the practice problems at the end of the chapter. Anything that you don’t finish in that time will be your homework.”

Jaemin’s hand shoots straight up.

Dongyoung tosses the laser pointer back and forth between his hands. “Yes, Jaemin?”

“Can we work together?”

Glancing down at the textbook open on his desk, Dongyoung scans over the fifteen math problems he’s just assigned. This is one of his rowdier classes, full of too many jokesters, and they always end up talking either way. If they copy each other’s answers, then they’ll suffer on the final test and it’ll be their own faults. So, he shrugs. “Sure. Just don’t get too loud. Ms. Kang’s class next door is taking a test.”

Jaemin hoots and hi fives Jeno sitting across the aisle from him.

As his class begins to work, Dongyoung slides into his chair. He flips through the next few pages of the textbook, making mental notes of what he’ll teach in the upcoming classes to be on time for the final exam in about a month. When he finishes with those short plan alterations, he disconnects his laptop from the projector in order to check his email.

There’s one from Taeil Moon, one of the music teachers, about the winter dance being held in two weeks. Usually, at this point, the only teachers contacted about the dance should be the ones who volunteered to chaperone the students and Dongyoung frowns as he clicks to open it, wondering why he’s received an email.

It’s a reminder about a meeting the chaperones will be having to prepare for the event plus a list of the all of the teachers who volunteered and Dongyoung rubs a hand over his face when he spies his name at the top of the alphabetical list.

He’d be confused, but there’s a Yuta Nakamoto at the very bottom and everything makes perfect sense.

Glancing up at his students to make sure they’re busy with work, Dongyoung then takes his phone from his bag and quickly navigates to his texts to send a very eloquent ‘ _i fucking loathe you_ ‘. He tosses the device back into his bag soon after, knowing Yuta won’t see the message until he’s free from class.

Telling Taeil he doesn’t want to chaperone the dance is out of the question. Not if he doesn’t want to appear like one of the high schoolers they teach, playing dumb games with Yuta when they should be professional.

Clicking to reply to the email, Dongyoung confirms he’s seen the message and that he’ll be at the meeting in the following week.

When he opens the drawer on his desk to get his planner and his eyes land on the box of chocolates, Dongyoung mentally scratches a thick, dark line through Yuta's name under his mental list of potential admirers. 

 

“You spelled ‘love’ wrong.” Yuta places a hand on the running copier and leans into Dongyoung’s view.

Dongyoung brushes his hand aside. “What?”

“In your text earlier,” Yuta explains, leaning back against the wall space beside the machine.

Dongyoung stares at where the print outs for his statistics class are flying out from the copier, wondering if there’s anyway to make it go faster. He glances at the number of copies left on the display. Thirty-six. Maybe his second class doesn’t need the handout.

“You signed me up for the winter formal,” he says plainly, pointedly not looking at his coworker.

“That’s what you’re mad about?” Yuta snorts. “It’s not like you have anything to do.”

Dongyoung’s nose scrunches up in annoyance and he finally looks up at the other man. “You don’t know that.”

“I know  _you_ , Dons.”

Yuta’s mouth is still opened to continue talking but Dongyoung cuts him off.

“No matter what your reasoning is, there’s no justifying that you decided something for me without my permission.”

Pursing his lips, Yuta scans over Dongyoung’s face as the math teacher returns his attention to the screen of the copier to watch the progress. There’s nothing but the sound of the copying machine spitting out paper and of a phone ringing on the other side of the office.

The phone gets picked up, the secretary’s voice drifting into the small offside printing room.

Yuta sighs. “I’m sorry,” he apologies.

It’s genuine, even though Dongyoung gets the idea he’s not apologizing for what he’s done as much as how he’s made Dongyoung upset.

“I’ll tell Taeil there was a misunderstanding that lead me to sign you up,” he says.

Dongyoung sighs, waving a hand. “I already told him I’d be at the meeting.”

Yuta raises an eyebrow. "You're going to do it?" 

The copier spits out the last sheets of paper and releases a high pitched beep at the end of its job. Dongyoung snatches the handouts out of the tray, grunting a sound of affirmation in his throat that sounds more like a groan.

"One of us needs to be the adult between us," he says. Looking at Yuta long out of the corner of his eye, he tucks the papers into a manila folder and presses the reset button on the copying machine.

Narrowing his eyes, Yuta sucks his teeth. "That's weird." He reaches out and flattens his palm against Dongyoung's forehead, checking for a temperature. "Are you okay?" 

Dongyoung rolls his eyes. "Stop."

Yuta slips his hand into his pocket. "I'm just saying." He shrugs. "I expected you to back out so you can sit in your cold, miserable, undecorated apartment alone and sip wine while grumbling about how the radio stations won't play anything but Santa Baby and All I Want for Christmas Is You."

Remembering the original copy of his study guide, Dongyoung tucks the folder under his arm so he can take it out from the copier. Yuta reaches out to take the folder.

"That'd be a much better way to spend my time," says Dongyoung. "But, alas, I'm giving in to your obvious deep-rooted desire to spend more time with me."

A wide grin spreads across Yuta's face. "I knew you loved me."

Rolling his eyes again, Dongyoung turns to walk around the science teacher and out of the printing room, Yuta quick to fall into step beside him.

"How long were you planning on staying today?" Yuta asks as they head back to the third floor.

Dongyoung runs a hand through his hair idly. "I really need to finish grading, so at least until that's done."

Yuta hums sympathetically. 

"You?" 

"I have a stack of lab notebooks to check but I was just gonna take them home and look over them this weekend."

Dongyoung makes a noise of disagreement. "Don't take your work home," he says. "We're getting drinks tomorrow, remember? Just bring the notebooks to my room and we'll knock it out now. I have chocolate."

Yuta licks over his lips and chuckles. "Yeah? And you're willing to share? Must not be the kind you like."

Dongyoung hums, feels that odd whirl in his stomach. "It's my favorite, but I could spare maybe two or three."


End file.
